Valery Gerasimov

Valery Vasilievich Gerasimov (8 September 1955-) was Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Army from 2012, succeeding Nikolay Makarov.

Biography
Valery Vasilievich Gerasimov was born on 8 September 1955 in Kazan, Tatar ASSR, Soviet Union. In 1977 he graduated from the Kazan Higher Tank Command School and led a battalion in the Far Eastern Military District, and in 1997 he graduated from the General Staff academy. After his graduation, he led the Russian 58th Army in the North Caucasus Military District and fought in the Chechen Wars, imprisoning the controversial officer Yuri Budanov in a move praised by the journalist Anna Politkovskaya (who was assassinated in 2006). In 2006 he took over the Leningrad Military District, and in 2012 he was given his highest command, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian military, as well as the rank of General of the Army. Gerasimov was sanctioned by the European Union in April 2014 for his involvement in the Crimean Crisis, in which unmarked Russian troops arrived in Crimea to assist separatists in taking over.